Third party application service providers often require access to telecommunications services in order to exercise their respective business models. Traditionally, network operators have been able to develop systems and processes for providing third parties such desired access. Service delivery platforms created by network providers and tied to the network are used to provide native services to application service providers. Such service delivery platforms become an economical and efficient mechanism for providing network access.
The problem is that the functionality of service delivery platforms is very limited, most often to access, bandwidth and load control, and security with little other functionality provided. Moreover, service delivery platforms are local to the networks being accessed, meaning third party developers need to negotiate agreements and replicate their solution on multiple delivery platforms. The limited nature of service delivery platforms is especially difficult in the wireless telecommunications industry where rich network functionality is developing and becoming available yet not accessible to the third party developers. Thus there is a need for a full function service delivery platform which provides additional functionality including monetization, hosting, policy control, storefront sales portals, settlement, reporting, routing, and service management. There is also a need for a centralized service delivery platform to provide a single point of access to application developers to avoid replication of offerings and inefficient use of resources. Finally, there is a need to expand this functionality beyond application service providers to enablers and content aggregators and other third parties.
With respect to ring-back tone platforms, the existing ring-back tone systems are typically closed systems. There is a need to provide open ring-back tone platforms that permit user-generated content to the platform and to provision that content in one network and make it available across multiple networks.
Once the need for the service delivery platform is addressed, there exists a further need to develop and automate processes through which third party developers may access the service delivery platform and take advantage of its functionality in executing its business plan.